Bella Ramos is a birder. While she acknowledges that there may be more experienced and knowledgeable birders, she says she is “obsessed with birds.” Ramos and her bird-loving friends had even been turning off their lights to protect migrating birds years before the city of Austin passed a resolution to do so. Now the ordinary, non-birding […]
Jackie Ibarra
Posted inEnvironment
New expansion plan helps food forest put down roots
Just across Interstate 35, tucked away from the busy streets and towering skyscrapers of downtown Austin, is a small green oasis called the Festival Beach Food Forest. Visitors can walk the trails just off Lady Bird Lake, picking – and eating – fresh fruit and vegetables along the way. According to a new conceptual plan approved […]
Posted inHousing
Student commission prepares to tackle affordable housing crisis
On Nov. 5, the College Student Commission voted to create a working group to study the city’s affordable housing crisis, specifically as it affects students. “I think that anyone who’s living here in Austin knows, we do have an affordable housing crisis. I don’t think the city is currently on track to meet its affordable […]
Posted inPublic Health
Council votes to protect rights of intersex children
Austin is one of the first cities in the South Central U.S. to pass a resolution formally condemning non-consensual and medically unnecessary surgeries on intersex children. “There is an ‘I’ in LGBTQIA – it stands for intersex,” Mayor Pro-Tem Natasha Harper-Madison said at City Council’s Oct. 21 meeting. “Approximately 2 percent of people are born […]
Posted inCity Council
In the face of statewide abortion ban, Council affirms support for reproductive rights
In 2019, the city of Austin made headlines for being one of the first cities in the nation to allocate funds to help women access abortions. Now, with the recent passage of Texas’ Senate Bill 8, the most restrictive abortion ban in the country, City Council has approved a resolution calling for continued support for reproductive […]